In a strategic investment, Yatra Online Pvt Ltd, the owners of Yatra.com, has picked up a stake in Travel Services International Pvt.Ltd (TSI), a wholesale ticket consolidator. The transaction details are not known. This tie up will mark the foray of Yatra into the ticket consolidation space.
TSI intends to leverage on Yatra’s complementary strengths, it said in a statement. Singhi Advisors were the sole advisors to the transaction.
A recent report in Business Standard said that Yatra is headed for an IPO and that the online travel company is looking at a $50-80M IPO by early next year. Yatra.com has raised money from Intel Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Reliance Technology Ventures and TV18 Group.
Founded in 1999, TSI claims to have an annual billing of about Rs 430 crore. TSI deals in domestic and international air tickets, hotel accommodation, car rentals, cruises, airport transfers, sightseeing and excursions and incentive travel and conferences.
According to TSI's website, the company is currently dealing with over 400 agents and claims to be one of the largest wholesalers for tickets in the country. It counts 267 corporates as its clients in India. It also has a web-based application called tsi.travel which can be used with a unique user name and password for managing the networks operations, which is available to retail franchisees, retail agents, corporates and direct customers.
The company is founded by Praveen Chugh, who has about 32 years of experience in the travel trade. He has also been the Founder Chairman of Northern India Chapter of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI ).
In a similar deal back in 2007, Travelguru acquired online hotel rooms consolidator Desiya.com.
